"One skill that has given me more value than any other thing that I've learned, is probably sketching" - Hans Kim, Design 100 course Teacher at the University of Auckland.
As a person who likes to communicate visually, I can say that I agree with Hans' statement. Sketching is not only something I enjoy but it is the foundation for all the design work I've done to date -from primary education to tertiary education. It is a core tool that is useful in order to communicate your ideas and thoughts, not only to yourself but to others. In the Sketching for Prototyping training I underwent for my Design 100 course (DES100), Hans told us that the purpose for sketching can come down to two things:
1) to think - sketching acts as a method for thinking as we capture our thoughts in a visual representation and can therefore iterate, develop and evolve our ideas as well as communicate details.
and 2) to show - sketching communicates thoughts and feelings, and helps the audeince grasp a better visualisation of something.
However the quality of the sketching in both aspects vary because in sketching for thinking the quality depends on the value of the idea being captured and portrayed in the sketches, whereas in sketching for showing, the quality depends on how aesthetically pleasing it is.
In sketching for prototyping the purpose is to show our thinking. Prototyping is a key process designers undergo in order to evolve ideas and reach better solutions. Therefore it requires us to capture and communicate in-depth analysis and thinking for us to grow our ideations. Hans gave us useful tips for sketching for prototyping and had us conduct two quick sketching exercises to incorporate these tips.
In the first exercise, we had to iterate different sketches surrounding a bottle following the instructions given i.e. sizing, add attributes, refine curves/shape, open lid function etc. in 7-8 minutes.
The second exercise was similar nd also done in 7-8 minutes but instead focused on sketches around a lamp and then putting the lamp into different contexts i.e. changing its size in relation to the environment.
We were then given another similar exercise but it was to be done independently in a larger timeframe i.e. 30minutes to one hour, where we explore and iterate different sketches based on the chair image given to us by Hans.
These exercises served as important practice for us to be able to visually communicate our design thinking process as well as help us in understand prototyping and the design process as a whole.